Eye Level Is Buy Level

7 months ago

3 min read

Making life easy for shoppers is one of the most effective ways to encourage sales. Shelves or hooks on walls are one of the easiest ways to display products, so take advantage of the verticals in your store with these pointers.

Stretch Level – 180cm and above

Most shoppers will often not bother to look up to the higher shelves, unless they are really searching hard for a product (although ideally, you don’t want them to have to do this by making everything clear), or the items displayed up high are truly eye catching. As these shelves are difficult for many shoppers to reach they will, of course, be shopped from less often. So the Visual Merchandising convention is to place premium products with higher margins up here. This way, when products do sell from the top, they earn and pay for space on the shelf, even if they sit there for a longer time.

Common sense dictates that heavy or breakable items should not be displayed up high, as they will be more likely to cause injury if an overstretched arm reaches up and knocks something off or loses grip. The last thing you want is bulky objects falling on to customers from a height. From an aesthetic point of view, visually heavy or dark coloured items are less successfully displayed up high, because they can make shelves look top heavy. Shelves are more appealing to look at when dressed with dark and bulky items at the bottom, gradually getting lighter as the shelves go up.

Eye Level – 122cm – 152cm

Eye Level is Buy Level, or so the saying goes. This is one of the most basic principles of Visual Merchandising. As this area is easiest for adult shoppers to browse, it will receive significantly more attention from shoppers than products in the other zones. If you have an abundance of a product you want to shift, or a line or collection you want to showcase, this is the ideal spot for it.

Touch Level – 90cm – 120cm

It isn’t rocket science to say that products placed in this area will be most easily seen and desired by children. If your business doesn’t sell anything for little youngsters, then use these lower shelves for items in the next margin bracket down from those in the eye level zone. Products with detailed instructions or particulars on the packaging can be well placed here, as it is easy for customers to pick them up to scrutinise.

Stoop Level – 90cm and under

Bending down to pick up items placed near the floor can be a pain for some groups of shoppers, particularly the elderly or those with certain disabilities. Generally, products with lower margins are best placed on these lower shelves, so that best sellers and merchandise with better margins are given the premium eye level position. It is also worth mentioning that less-mobile customers, and/or wheelchair users may need a little extra help from store assistants, no matter how conveniently things are placed on the shelves. It’s always worth encouraging staff to be sensitive to their needs and quick to step in to offer good service. You can have the most beautiful and tantalising shop display in the world, but it is nothing without the support of staff to make it shoppable and accessible to all.

Image Credits:

Zoe Hewett

Zoë Hewett is a member of Modern Retail’s Editorial Board. Zoë is an interior designer with a background in theatre design and visual merchandising. A former Visual Merchandiser for Habitat, Zoë now specialises in helping independent retailers make their mark on the high street.

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